Rovers 5 Brendon Bees 2 08/09/18

08/09/2018
Match Report
Saturday Team

Scorers Kyle x 2, Josh, Anthony Vasquez and Ben Costello

On a wet Saturday morning in Droylsden was Rovers first away game of the season against fellow league newcomers Brendon Bee’s. As first thought this club mainly run junior teams and this is their first strides into open age football. Unlike most Academies this match was played on a freshly cut grass surface but due to the weather the grass wasn’t cut short enough hampering the free-flowing movement of the football for both teams.

Rovers starting 11 was changed from the previous week with 4 players missing so players coming in needed to match the standard set from the previous weeks result.

From the off the football from Rovers was slow. Passes were being found but not at the speed where an opposition could be outplayed. Brendon Bee’s on the other hand were probably too fast in seeking out passes which meant Rovers could comfortably keep possession among the back 4 but were finding it hard to bring the midfield into play to move the ball up the field.

The first 20 minutes saw Rovers try to seek out the runs of Kyle and Anthony up front, but their efforts were thwarted with some great tackling from the Bee’s defence. Bee’s tried to break down Rovers defence and the odd shot they had went straight into the hands of Alex.

The deadlock was broken on 25 minutes after some intricate passing on the edge of the box between Harry and Josh who then took on two defenders to leave him one on one with the keeper to which he blasted the ball home for 1 nil. Rovers second followed 10 minutes later where eventually Rovers hit the channels finding Kyle on the right who crossed brilliantly to find the head of Anthony who guided the ball home past the keeper for his first goal for Rovers in his competitive debut. 2 nil Rovers and that’s how the half ended.

The 2nd half started like the first with Rovers trying to find a foot hold in the game and this came after 55 minutes where Kyle and Anthony broke free to be 2 on 1 with the last defender. Anthony was given the ball to get the shot off which hit the defender but fortunately for Rovers then fell to Kyle who has the easy task of slotting past the keeper for 3 nil.

Credit to Bee’s who within 5 minutes reduced the deficit and a superb cross form the right found the head of their striker who put powered it past Alex for 3-1. This gave Bee’s some hope, but this was then distinguished within 5 minutes when Kyle broke free and from an acute angle beat the keeper for 4-1. Rovers were now in their stride and a fifth swiftly followed. A cross from the left found Ben Costello on the edge of the box who on the volley powered the ball into the direction of the goal only for it to be superbly blocked by the defender. The ball ended up back at Ben who with a weaker effort found the bottom corner. 5-1 Rovers. Changes were made by both teams and Rovers eased of the pace previously set to see out the game. With a minute to go Bees were awarded a penalty in what the ref thought was a high boot from Phil. Some would argue the case but with a minute to go whatever happened wasn’t going to affect the result. The striker stepped up and saw his penalty saved by Alex with his feet as he dove left, but the rebound fell straight back to the striker to slot home. 5 - 2 Rovers and that’s how the game ended.

On another day this game could have had a bigger score line in Rovers favour if the tempo was upped more often which is no disrespect to our opponents who kept playing football till the end, but the quality Rovers had in passing and end product was at this stage in Bee’s development far superior.

Next up is Hewlett (on Saturday the 15th at Rushford Park) who are main stays of Saturday morning football, so the squad need to be expecting a sterner test as per the standard of football set in Rovers first game of the season.